His Greatest Fight
by Macbeth 7768
Summary: Semi-sequel to "His Finest Hour". Cormag sets out to avenge his brother, General Glen, killed in the mountains of Carcino by the Renaitian army. But vengeance takes an unexpected turn... ((This story is on hold. I will probably be taking down the chapters and replacing them individually.))
1. Chapter 1: Shattered

Alright, I didn't think I'd write something like this, but I did. This is a short multi-chapter-fic, sequel to "His Finest Hour."

Disclaimer: As usual, I do not own Fire Emblem, Cormag, Valter, Genarog, or any other characters or terms of the Fire Emblem Universe. All of these are the property of Nintendo and Intelligent Systems. Thank you.

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Cormag still couldn't believe his ears. "My br-General Glen is dead?"

Valter nodded mournfully. "It is true. He was slain by Eirika. I saw from afar as she drove her sword into his chest. I was too late to save him, but I was able to hear his final message. He said 'Tell Cormag that he is the new Sunstone."

Cormag gritted his teeth. "Show me the body. Then I'll believe."

The other walked away, beckoning for Cormag to follow. He did so, feeling as though the general was playing some kind of cruel joke. Glen was the Sunstone, one of the Imperial Three. Sure, he had been uneasy about confronting Eirika, but even so!

Valter stepped aside, and Cormag beheld the body of his brother. The body seemed to be a mockery of his brother, his side torn and a blossom of blood staining his breastplate.

Cormag stared in silence, taking in the wretched sight. Then, uncaring of who saw him, he fell to his knees. One of the pillars of his life had just crumbled to dust, and now the dust was filling his eyes, blinding him to any idea of what he could do, with his brother and idol dead. He couldn't see anyone around him, and barely heard his own profanities. "Dammit, Valter! Why couldn't I have helped him?"

* * *

Hours later, Cormag looked at the practice dummy. In his anger, he had all but pulverized the man-sized object, in addition to his lance.

"Cormag." The wyvern rider turned in surprise to behold Valter approaching him. Valter's wyvern lurked behind its rider, its long neck turning to sniff at scents unknown to man. Cormag dismounted swiftly, and, kneeling, put his hand to his breast.

The general sniffed. "Rise," he said flatly. Cormag did so. "I see you are...angered," the long-haired rider observed dryly. "I sympathize with your loss of your brother. Glen was an esteemed general. However, I have unfortunate news.

Cormag would have stiffened if such an action was possible for him, already stiff as he was. He spoke quietly. "What? Is Duessel now dead? Selena? Riev? Caellach?" He barely cared about the latter two, but was more than a little concerned for Duessel, and privately felt the world would be deprived of great beauty if Selena were to die.

Valter laughed humorlessly. "Riev and Caellach are alive and well. Duessel is in Bethroen, preparing to turn traitor. Selena is pursuing him so as to give him justice." Cormag's face showed no reaction. "My news concerns you. Originally," Valter sighed, "You were going to Bethroen with my reinforcements for Selena. However," he continued, "In light of recent circumstances, I send you with two wingmen to the north. Specifically, to Carcino, as reinforcements for Lieutenant Aias." Cormag noted that Valter placed emphasis on the word "Carcino", as though it was significant…

Eirika! She was headed to Carcino! That was where Glen died! Was Valter truly going out of his way to offer such a chance to a mere knight?

Cormag kept his face blank and semi-respectful, despite his disgust for his twisted superior. "Thank you, General," he replied evenly. "When am I to leave?"

"Tonight," Valter replied. "That is all. Dismissed." Cormag saluted smartly, his vigor renewed by this new opportunity, and left.

That night, Cormag took to the air with two wingmen at his sides, and flew north. He would take this chance, no matter from whom it came. He would avenge Glen. He _had_ to!

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Alright! A sequel!

Please review!


	2. Chapter 2: Capitulation

…Not much comment. Just that if you haven't seen the Terminator movies, watch them. At least the first two.

Oh, and continuity can be irritating at times.

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Chapter 2: Capitulation

Cormag sat astride Genarog, watching with keen eyes trained to spot enemies from afar. Years of training and focus had honed his eyes to detect even the slightest movement, so of course he saw, with a fair degree of clarity, the battle raging below. He could even differentiate the Grad soldiers from the Renaitians. Despite this, he could not find the cyan hair he so desired to see, though not for the reason others might desire to see it.

While others might wish to see the cyan hair in the closeness of an embrace, Cormag wished to see it stained with the red of its owner's lifeblood. He could almost taste the justice about to be served.

And now he saw it.

Cormag watched intently as his new-found target dashed from foe to foe, coming out with mere scratches while her opponents fell with either gushing wounds or worse. He could believe now that she had massacred Port Kiris and killed Glen. That made the whole business of killing much easier.

With his mind at ease as to his target's utter guilt, Cormag nudged Genarog with his heels, and slapped his visor down, feeling the dark cut away his peripheral vision. With a highly intelligent flying dragon for a mount and partner, peripheral vision was a fair trade for protection.

As he descended, Cormag felt the wind bite through his eye-holes, and concentrated on the unsuspecting murderess below him. Quietly, he raised his lance, and looped his arm through Genarog's reins, allowing him to put both hands to his lance, an advantage he took. He watched his quarry as she dueled with a heavily armored infantryman, and steadied his lance to hit her cleanly through the back. He watched as, unsuspecting of the death flying down to her, she jabbed at the infantryman and dropped to the ground to dodge the counterstrike.

And, he realized, his strike as well.

The lance seemed to impact slowly, its tempered steel head tearing through the infantryman's shield and arm, punching into his chest in an unquestionably fatal blow. For a sliver of a moment, Cormag felt, in sequence, pride in his lethal skill, horror at killing his countryman, and terror as he realized that he was bound in Genarog's saddle, and his lance was bound in the man's armor. He was caught, and would have to release one way or another.

Knowing that he would regret either decision, he chose to remain on his mount, and let go of his lance. As Genarog descended the remaining 3 meters to the ground, Cormag guided the wyvern in a tight circle, landing only a few meters from Eirika. Cormag pulled a javelin out from the case beneath his leg, and held it low, ready to thrust. He nudged Genarog, and the wyvern hissed menacingly, causing Eirika to back away, slowly.

Ordinarily Cormag would not be so rash as to remove his armor in a battle, but he felt that Eirika only deserved to know that she was about to meet justice from the brother of the one she had killed so cold-heartedly. "I suppose you should know that I am not merely any wyvern soldier. I am a knight of the Empire of Grado. You killed my brother." He then removed his helmet, letting his visage sink into her vision before he added, almost as an afterthought, "Prepare to die."

As Genarog advanced ever so slowly, Cormag was halted as Eirika called out, "Wait! You remind me of someone…..Glen?"

Cormag was taken aback, and stopped Genarog. He did, however, manage to maintain his focused deadpan. "No. I am not Glen. You killed Glen, didn't you?" He wasn't exactly expecting her to admit to the act, but the way she acted might be just as plain an admission. If she delayed, or her tone wasn't quite right, that would indicate her guilt.

"I never raised my sword against him. I did see him, though. In the Carcino Mountains, but we never fought," the Renaitian noble replied evenly and with no indication of evasiveness. Cormag concealed his surprise at her apparent utter lack of guile, and attempted to suppress his growing dread at seeing a knight on a white horse ride up behind Eirika. He was none other than the legendary Silver Knight, the greatest knight in all of Renais. Funnily enough, Cormag didn't know the Silver Knight's actual name, but he knew the silvery blue armor well enough to know that it was, indeed, the legend who stood behind Eirika. If he were to involve himself in this, Cormag would never survive. He would have to be either very quick or very clever.

He never had the chance to be either, as the next words out of the Silver Knight's mouth stopped him dead in his tracks.

"What she says is true. Glen was an honorable man, and he let us go, saying he would inquire with the Emperor. We have not seen him since. I swear that this is true. Upon my honor as a Knight of Renais." Cormag's unconcealed and unfeigned surprise seemed to ask the Silver Knight to go on, and the knight was only too happy to oblige. "Who sent you? Valter? Why doesn't he come and face us himself?"

While what the knight said alone wouldn't have been enough to convince Cormag, it did make him think, if only for a moment. Cormag did have to admit that, as he now looked at Eirika, his initial impression of an invincible warrior was mistaken. He noticed tears and gouges in her armor, and a cut on her face that marred what Cormag imagined would be a very beautiful face indeed. Now that he looked, he could barely see a heartless killer. Now that he looked, he also noticed a pair of archers, longbows both trained upon him.

Cormag did what no knight should have to do, and what no knight "should" do, but what any intelligent person would do. He flipped the javelin into a throwable position in his hand, aimed, and threw it into the ground. Ignoring the shocked looks from the Princess and the Silver Knight, Cormag smoothly dismounted and approached Eirika slowly, his hands held at eye level and spread wide.

"I surrender." Cormag barely kept his voice from cracking, and probably not with total success. "I surrender!" He repeated, louder, as though they hadn't heard him. They certainly didn't act like they had. "Aren't you going to put me in irons, or something?"

"We don't have irons," replied the Silver Knight. "We never expected a voluntary surrender from any Grads." The Knight thought for a moment. "We can, however, keep you under guard. Understand that if you attempt to cause harm upon the Renaitian army, you will die."

Cormag could do naught else but nod assent. He had already sacrificed his honor in surrendering, he really didn't care if he died or not. Besides, he had a plan in place.


	3. Chapter 3: Denial

Chapter 3: Denial

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Cormag gently stroked Genarog's muzzle, feeling the smooth scales under his fingers and the wyvern's warm breath, regular and slow, on his bound arms. Though the wyvern was incapable of the fantastic feats of the wyverns in tales of old, such as mental communication and breathing fire, Genarog's close bond with Cormag gave them a communication almost superior to any magic mental link. And through this bond, though pedestrian and seemingly little different from the bond between a man and a dog, Cormag felt Genarog's frustration at confinement.

Usually in Grado, wyverns were allowed to fly with their riders for a period of time every day, to maintain their fitness and aerobatic prowess. Now, though, with the apparent danger of Cormag attempting to kill the Princess, he had been placed under guard, and Genarog's wings tied down. Cormag did not blame them for being so cautious. After all, only a lucky dodge had saved the Princess from impalement…and probable justice.

Nobody knew, though, how endangered the Princess was. None of them were soldiers of Grado, and none of them knew exactly how proficient Cormag was at fighting barehanded. Most wyvern riders were, as a wyvern-lance is not exactly useful for on-foot fighting. While his bound hands would certainly be an issue, Cormag still could be deadly…if he had the element of surprise.

He watched as a Renaitian guard sat, his spear always in hand, ready to kill Cormag should he should try to escape. Unfortunately, tonight only one person would die, and it was certainly not going to be Cormag. He had everything thought out. All he had to get was the opportunity.

He rose, carefully controlling his expression, and looked to the guard. "I have a small request. Can you grant it?"

The guard shrugged. He must have been new; otherwise he would have had at least an oral answer, be it yea or nay. Cormag decided to try. "I wish to see Princess Eirika. I have something to tell her."

"Then speak to me." Cormag and the guard looked in surprise as the imposing figure of the Silver Knight standing there, as he had probably been for a while. "You are the brother of General Glen the Sunstone, correct?" Comrag nodded cautiously. "I met your brother, once. It was at a great feast to celebrate the eight hundreth of the founding of Renais and Grado. I only talked to him for a moment, but he seemed an honorable man. Your news of his death pains me."

"Cut the shit," Cormag spat. "Your damn princess killed him, I know she did. Don't try your lies."

The Silver Knight paused. When he spoke, his voice was cold. "I shall permit that disrespect once." After a pause to gauge Cormag's reaction (or rather, his lack thereof), his voice was warmer, as before. "I saw him again, but only from a distance. That was in the mountains several leagues behind us. Neither I nor anyone in the army fought him."

"Then how did he die?" Cormag felt he should not be pushing his luck, but he wanted an answer.

"I do not know," the Silver Knight admitted. Cormag looked at him for a long moment, thinking. The knight seemed to speak truthfully; Cormag admitted to himself that he had no reason to doubt him. To use a metaphor from court trials he had seen, the Silver Knight seemed a dependable witness. In fact, hadn't the Emperor had a saying when judging a murder case not very different from this? What was it?

Cormag racked his brain, thinking about his rationale for this damnable excursion. He hated Valter. That was established. In addition to being sadistic and bloodthirsty, the general was also rude, presumptuous, and condescending. So why had Cormag trusted him so readily? A lot of good that did him: captured by the enemy, his wingmen killed, hundreds if not thousands of leagues from even the Gradoan border, much less the Capital.

Now that Cormag thought of the Capital, he remembered His Majesty's saying. "The burden of proof is with the accuser," Cormag muttered. Of course. Eirika could be temporarily exonerated based on the simple fact that there was no real proof. Just the testimony of a boorish, self-serving sadist.

"Pardon?" Cormag snapped out of his thinking to see that the Silver Knight was still staring at him, awaiting some kind of answer, perhaps. Cormag sighed. He wasn't keen to turn traitor, but he had to have an answer.

"Sir Knight, I say this as a man humbled," Cormag murmured, though louder than before, so the Silver Knight would hear him. "I have made unfounded accusations, and I apologize," he continued, but then he faltered. He had little more to say, and what he truly wanted to say, to ask, to plead, he could not presume to do so. Such would be beyond ordinary rudeness, it was a deep disrespect to a warrior much superior to him, in rank, in skill, and in time in service.

Cormag was so absorbed in his thinking and mental self-kicking that he failed to hear the Silver Knight speaking to him until the knight prodded him. "Did you hear me?"

Cormag looked up at the face, chiseled by years of training and fighting. "I'm sorry?"

"I said, did you have anything else to say?" The Silver Knight's face seemed to ask the unspoken question that Cormag desperately wanted to answer or to ask in his own fashion.

Nevertheless, he ignored it. "No, sir. Nothing." He watched as the Silver Knight nodded and walked away. Cormag then let himself rest on the ground for a minute before getting up and returning to Genarog, his plan reduced to ruins….by lies that were true.

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Notes: I hope you enjoyed this chapter; thanks for reading up to here. Please review if y'don't mind.


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